I have been putting off looking at the carbs so Phil jumped in today and pulled them down , how is this for sitting for the past 12 years , no blockages in the jets ,
Just a wee bit of junk in the bowl

Everything was within spec so nothing was replaced except for the seals. I messaged the guy who rebuilt it and he came around this morning and took it away with my case and sorted it , I collected it today, it is busy in the shop so no time to play today.

On a brighter note , one of my customers sent me this after seeing the t500

Well, 2 steps forward and three back , The good news that I finally sorted out my tyres, I was tossing up between modern tyres and classic replicas, I chose modern tyres and I want to regularly ride this bike, and Craig from Wright’s racing products shipped me some new Bridgestone battle axes which are now fitted. The next step was to complete the engine build so it could go back in the frame, the top case went on easily enough , then a check of the piston and rings showed that one piston ring set set is correct, the other is the correct piston and incorrect rings , It seems someone was swapped out the rings with another set at Serco and they don’t fit my piston, that is an easy fix tomorrow. Figured we move onto the clutch , after assembly, we found that the clutch is binding up, so I need to get a small amount machined off the basket, will sort that out in the morning . Lastly , the oil pump isn’t spinning freely, so I need to pull that one down and find out why.

Slowly, slowly... even with a few setbacks, I am stilll keen as mustard to ride it

My machinist sorted out my clutch , he took 4-6 thousands of an inch off and it is now perfect. My replacement rings have arrived so the motor should be back in the frame next week. The oil pump is the biggest issue , it binds up in a couple of spots so I stripped it down, I couldnt see anything but my machinist has a look and he can feel some flat spots on the shaft gear, he said it is almost like someone has put it in a vice and crushed it a little bit.

I can’t use it as is so the hunt for an oil pump is on, there are some on eBay but they want over $300 delivered which is just silly , I will keep looking

Another snafu this week, my $60 oem air cleaner arrived and it doesn’t fit my airbox , it appears there are 2 different airbox models on the t500, I have the air cleaner for one type and the other airbox, @Phil did a run to Clark rubber and picked up some air cleaner foam and made some filters for the existing box.

I found a t500 pump from a shop in Sydney , we agreed on a price and he said he would email me bank details , after 2 days I gave up waiting and posted on a t500 Facebook group looking for a pump, once I explained what was wrong with mine , a guy in Perth messaged me and said he had both shafts available and express posted them to me for $30. They arrived today and I put the pump together and it was no longer binding up, #winning

Now the oil pump is fitted , I decided to get both pistons fitted then put the heads and barrels on. I then made sure everything was tourqued up to spec and decided to fit the engine to the frame. These old bikes are so much easier to fit engines than modern ones, literally took minutes to mount the engine.

I fitted the oil lines to the oil tank , while @Phil got the carbs mounted and the airbox on.

I have one last part I am waiting on, the clutch cover gasket, the guys at BK performance took my old broken one this morning and are scanning it and will make me a replacement, I will hopefully pick it up tomorrow

Tomorrow I am shutting the shop for the day, my daughter is graduating high school so I am going to watch the graduation ceremony then take her out for nice lunch. Depending on the number of beers consumed, I may end up back at the shop and get the Electronic ignition installed.

Up at the crack of dawn for my sons cricket game, we started warming up, until we realised there was nlo pitch, it appears the groundsman didn’t get the memo that there was a game on , so we packed up and came home... I was like bugger it, I’m off to work to play with the t500.

I picked up some trans oil and 2 new plugs from my local bike shop, then headed too the shop to hopefully fire this old girl up.

First task was to get the clutch cover on then fit the rh exhaust. New plugs were then fitted. Next job was the electronic ignition, I read the instructions and felt a bit out of my comfort zone as it was pretty light on detail , I googled Suzuki Newtronic Ignition and found a vid of an Englishman and did a quick run through on how it all worked, I felt a lot more confident. The first task was fitting the new pick ups and the trigger wheel, these did not fit, so I used my bench grinder to take a very small amount off the pick up plates , now they fit really well. The next job was to connect the pick ups to the new cdi box then wire in the coils and find 12v from the ignition and find a suitable earth so it would run

Basically it was wired up, so I hooked up a battery and fitted the kick starter , I kicked it over with the coil caps off and each time the trigger wheel passed a pickup, a light would flash on the cdi. That meant I got it right. I then removed the old points and condensers , I was pretty confident it was going to run, or at the very least know that the spark was good. Tested for spark at the coils.... tick ... getting close

I filled the engine case with 1400cc of trans oil, almost ready to start.

The oil pump still worried me, I know you guys said prime it, which isn’t easy unless you pull the oil pump and hook it up to a drill and use the drill to spin the pump. I tried a syringe filled with Castrol tts and that just made a mess. The oil lines looked they had tiger strips, so at least there was some oil flowing through.

I mixed up some 25-1 2 stroke oil and filled the carbs, put the choke on and gave her a kick.... the compresssion was awesome but she didn’t start. I had Phil holding my phone taking a vid. I kicked that old girl for 20 mins and nothing... , Phil made more failed attempt videos, it was quite funny in hindsight. .I was absolutely buggered and getting quite frustrated, Phil suggested turning the choke off... I wiped my brow and kicked it again.... almost started , well let me show you where we went to from here in a video

It’s alive , and I am pleased as punch , still lots to do such as set the timing, cleanup the wiring etc , but she is a runner and the tiger marks in the oil lines are clearing up so the pump is working.

As I was driving home , I called @Suzukititan who was the previous owner of the bike to let him know she is alive, he was most pleased

well, my oil pump was playing up again so I managed to find one on the gold coast, I was talking to a customer who said he knows someone who races them, I went down and met with the owner and we talked t500's for hours, in the end he gave me the pump for free, which was incredibly nice. I fitted the new pump Monday and also fitted new chain and sprockets as my chain had some tight links.

So today I went down and had it inspected and took it in and paid my registration. I have just fitted my new license plate and took her for a run in the rain, I am grinning from ear to ear. it is a strange old thing to ride, but loads of fun, I got a few thumbs up as I rode it around. I not convinced on the drum brake, but I have a standing offer from an Suzuki mechanic to help me set them up properly.